Director Fede Alvarez Finds The Spirit Of The Evil Dead

Sam Raimi has a very specific style and he honed a lot of that in the early part of his career making the Evil Dead movies. I’m curious, when you were approaching the project, obviously, you want to have the homages to the original film, but at the same time, you don’t want to have it completely overtake your own personal direction.

It was a challenge and for me. You’re remaking a movie that is particularly iconic because of the director’s style and that was scary. That was scary because I always had my way to do things and I’ve been doing shorts since I was a kid, so my style is whatever, it's the way I like to do things. That’s everybody’s style. It’s just the way you like to do things. So, I felt like I shouldn’t have to worry about it. I should just go and shoot this movie the way I like to shoot and then whatever. Whatever will happen will happen. And there were some moments when I felt bad, when I was shooting and I did a take and I felt it was too similar and usually I would call it off and change it. It’s like, “No, no, no, no...” I didn’t want to do it. I didn’t want to include "the force" in the beginning - I felt like, that’s Sam Raimi’s force. And then I took it that way. I felt like, let’s have Sam Raimi’s force as almost sort of a Sam Raimi cameo in the movie, that way if we have that. It’s not a crucial part of the movie. It’s not there all of the time. It’s just like you unleash the horror in the beginning...

And fans love to see it.

Exactly, exactly. And so I took it more that way and then I think it’s so different, the rest of the movie in general. And the movie starts with an upside-down shot. I think nobody noticed. Everybody was so crazy with the title, nobody noticed that we start with an upside down forest.

Totally.

But that also was, I think, for me, when I watch it as a kid, what I thought was original about his style that in the opening moment there, you follow Bruce upside down.

I do also want to ask, you sent shock waves around the internet when you announced that you’re planning a sequel after the screening. I’m wondering, where do you go from here and what is the direction you have planned?

That’s a good question. I think it has to go to a place that nobody will expect. That’s what it should be. I think we surprised people with this one because, you know, the trailers, people were saying, “Oh, they’re trying to make it a cooler and grittier version,” and I knew it wasn’t that [laughs]. So I think that’s what we have to do now. We have to take everybody by surprise and do something completely different, because that’s what we owe to the legacy of Evil Dead. The Evil Dead has nothing to do with the second one, the second one is completely different, the characters are different, and it’s a different movie even though people think it’s so similar. But they’re quite different in the nature and the spirit of the movie. And the third one! It’s medieval times! The Medieval Dead!

Will it be that big of a jump?

Who knows! Maybe. And then this one, if you compare it with the first one, it’s a throwback to the first one, but it’s also a completely different movie. I don’t think this one is similar to any other previous ones – it’s the same spirit, but it’s not just like it. So I think that the next one is definitely going to have that. If people enjoy this one, believe me, the second one is going to be a fucking blast.